Will HL2 be subtitled?

  • Thread starter Thread starter niKo
  • Start date Start date
N

niKo

Guest
Hello everyone.

As the subject line suggests, I'd like to know whether or not Half-Life 2's spoken dialogue will be subtitled. The reason I ask is because I'm a deaf gamer, and so I require subtitles to accompany the in-game dialogue in order to comprehend what's going on. The original Half Life wasn't subtitled at all, which made it often very difficult to progress through the game. And since Half Life 2 will probably be even more reliant on interactivity with NPCs than the original... well, you can understand my concern.

I've seen some (though not all) of the preview videos of Half Life 2 in action, and haven't noticed any text accompanying the spoken dialogue. Can anyone shed light on whether or not subtitles will be included at all?

Thanks in advance (and apologies if this has been posted previously).
 
Yep, it's subtitled as an option. Probably even in multiple languages. :)

Okay, Shuzer got there first, searched out a link and posted it in the time it took me to write one sentence. Again. :O
 
niKo said:
Hello everyone.

As the subject line suggests, I'd like to know whether or not Half-Life 2's spoken dialogue will be subtitled. The reason I ask is because I'm a deaf gamer, and so I require subtitles to accompany the in-game dialogue in order to comprehend what's going on. The original Half Life wasn't subtitled at all, which made it often very difficult to progress through the game. And since Half Life 2 will probably be even more reliant on interactivity with NPCs than the original... well, you can understand my concern.

I've seen some (though not all) of the preview videos of Half Life 2 in action, and haven't noticed any text accompanying the spoken dialogue. Can anyone shed light on whether or not subtitles will be included at all?

Thanks in advance (and apologies if this has been posted previously).
Click to expand...
That must have been hard to understand what they were saying in some of the videos and in halflife.
 
Thanks Shuzer, nice one.

And Pauly, yeah I couldn't really understand anything in the preview videos (I only managed to catch bits and pieces of what was being said, and never whole sentences). As for Half Life, I just stumbled through the whole game not knowing what the plot was about or anything. I still had fun of course, but it would probably be even more fun if I knew what people were saying (especially the g-man; to this day I still don't know what he says at the very end of the game!).
 
Gordon Freeman in the flesh, or rather, in the Hazard suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons, most of them were government property. As for the suit, I think you've earned it.

The borderworld, Xen, is under our control, for the time being. Thanks to you. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there, I am impressed.

That's why I'm here, Mr Freeman. My.... employers have authorised me to offer you a job! They agree with me that you have limitless... potential.

You've shown yourself to be a decisive man so I don't think you'll have any trouble deciding what to do. Just step into the portal, and I'll take that, as a yes. Otherwise, well, I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning. Rather an anticlimax after what you've just survived.
 
niKo, maybe you can shed some light on this then. We were discussing recently whether or not the facial animations of the characters are realistic enough that their lips could be read accurately. Do you read lips, and if so, can you understand the Half Life 2 characters, from what you have seen?
 
Yep, subtitles will be in the game. Most newer games fts's has subtitles nowadays. You're not the only one with hearing problems. I can hear perfectly well, but when playing games there can sometimes be distortion, background sounds or whatever so I always play with subtitles to be sure to not miss a thing.

And shuzer, Mechagodzilla - good jobs. 8]
 
iamaelephant said:
niKo, maybe you can shed some light on this then. We were discussing recently whether or not the facial animations of the characters are realistic enough that their lips could be read accurately. Do you read lips, and if so, can you understand the Half Life 2 characters, from what you have seen?
Click to expand...

That would be really cool if he were able to do that.
 
hey niKo, how the hell did you ever get through the first HL.. :eek: :eek:
And no, i'm not trying to be a dick about it, it's just that it amazes me that you could get through it without being able to hear a thing.
 
iamaelephant said:
niKo, maybe you can shed some light on this then. We were discussing recently whether or not the facial animations of the characters are realistic enough that their lips could be read accurately. Do you read lips, and if so, can you understand the Half Life 2 characters, from what you have seen?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's definitely possible to lip-read what's being said. I had few problems interpreting what the G-man said in those close-up videos of his. The lip-synching is just so amazingly lifelike. Same goes for Alyx; I was able to "read" what she said as well. Still, I'd rather just read subtitles :)

And to Rafa 5.0, I relied on guesswork when dealing with important NPCs. It would only really be a problem for me if an NPC started to follow me around (i.e. to open a door or some other function). I would have to wander around the level venturing close to doors/hatches/buttons, anything that could be worked on by the NPC, in order to "get" the NPC to "do something." I hated having to do that, but it was pretty rare.

There was one time where I had to consult a walkthrough, and it was when dealing with that giant green tentacled monster. He just kept killing me over and over. When the walkthrough told me that he is in fact blind, and relies on sound to pinpoint my location... well, the irony of it all gave me a good laugh :D
 
niKo said:
There was one time where I had to consult a walkthrough, and it was when dealing with that giant green tentacled monster. He just kept killing me over and over. When the walkthrough told me that he is in fact blind, and relies on sound to pinpoint my location... well, the irony of it all gave me a good laugh :D
Click to expand...

heh, never really looked at it that way, but now that you mention it, that part would be pretty damn hard to figure out the first time through without sounds.
 
niKo said:
Yes, it's definitely possible to lip-read what's being said. I had few problems interpreting what the G-man said in those close-up videos of his. The lip-synching is just so amazingly lifelike. Same goes for Alyx; I was able to "read" what she said as well. Still, I'd rather just read subtitles :)
Click to expand...

Man, you can acctaully read the characters lips? That's awsome!
 
traesko said:
I don't really understand you now. Was that a joke?
Click to expand...
the kid is an spamming asshole, got almost 700 post this month and is plain rude and has shows lack of respect for everything, you decide if it was a joke, I wonder why he aint banned yet
 
EVIL said:
the kid is an spamming asshole, got almost 700 post this month and is plain rude and has shows lack of respect for everything, you decide if it was a joke, I wonder why he aint banned yet
Click to expand...

exactly, he's just pulling his typical "jump in and make a rude and stupid comment before actually reading the thread" routine
 
ACLeroK212 said:
exactly, he's just pulling his typical "jump in and make a rude and stupid comment before actually reading the thread" routine
Click to expand...

yeah and im getting sick of these kind of posts.
as for niKo its a serious matter.. and no rudeness or stupidness should be accepted because of niKo's condition.

niKo i hope u enjoy HL2 just as much as the rest of us will buddy :) :thumbs:
 
niKo said:
And to Rafa 5.0, I relied on guesswork when dealing with important NPCs. It would only really be a problem for me if an NPC started to follow me around (i.e. to open a door or some other function). I would have to wander around the level venturing close to doors/hatches/buttons, anything that could be worked on by the NPC, in order to "get" the NPC to "do something." I hated having to do that, but it was pretty rare.

There was one time where I had to consult a walkthrough, and it was when dealing with that giant green tentacled monster. He just kept killing me over and over. When the walkthrough told me that he is in fact blind, and relies on sound to pinpoint my location... well, the irony of it all gave me a good laugh :D
Click to expand...

Hahaha.. :thumbs:, it was hard enough for me to get through the blast pit, you probably were like WTF, when the tentacle kept killing you.

But where there is a will there's a way... "Catch me later, I'll buy you a beer"
 
er, Rafa. that quote doesn't really apply. barney isn't subtitled.
 
Myself , Im kinda tempted to run hl2 the first time in russian with english subtitles, true to its east-european setting.
Maybe even go for a black and white shader for that -obscure russian sixties arthouse sci fi film- effect.
 
sHm0zY said:
yes sir! wow another post woo
Click to expand...

This person should be banned for what he said! that was so out of order man.

Glad there will be Subtitles :)

Cool Valve really did do a fantastic job with lip Sync if Niko can understand what they are saying! That is so fantastic :D
 
i, too, am finding this shmozy character quite hard to stand. reminds me of a belgian guy i know. (no offense to any other belgians)

and having subtitles in games gives it a real cinematic effect, and will definitely benefit my experience of hl2.
 
ya seriously, i thought they just made random face movements but the fact that the face movements are completely accurate is awesome, niko you should try playing though half life2 by lipreading to see if you can :thumbs:
 
DrunkPanda said:
ya seriously, i thought they just made random face movements but the fact that the face movements are completely accurate is awesome, niko you should try playing though half life2 by lipreading to see if you can :thumbs:
Click to expand...

That'd be cool if he could do it, especially the fact that we've got the technology to actually allow that now, but it'd still be too much of a pain I think when compared to just having the subtitles. You'd have to make sure your always facing the NPC that's talking and plus with the intercoms and other situations were you can't always see who's talking (like maybe around a corner or a squad member running behind you) I'm sure you'd miss out on a lot of dialogue.
 
Another game without subtitles

I'm a deaf gamer too myself and one recent game by id - Doom 3 - does not carry subtitles. I played this game for the first time recently, but after 10 minutes I had to give up on it.

Why? Too hard? Hardly, I haven't even started fighting anything. So why then?

Well in the game at the beginning, you are told to follow a sentry bot to a maintenance tunnel. I do so. Then I find a cupboard with a keypad and how do I get the code to open it?

Why, I just needed to get the audio file from other character's PDA, and listen to it for the code...

err...that'll be a bit tricky if I can't listen to the audio file! A real pity as it was looking like a good game.

Still, if Half Life 2 DO get subtitles, then it will more than make up for lack of Doom 3
 
JGJones said:
I'm a deaf gamer too myself and one recent game by id - Doom 3 - does not carry subtitles. I played this game for the first time recently, but after 10 minutes I had to give up on it.

Why? Too hard? Hardly, I haven't even started fighting anything. So why then?

Well in the game at the beginning, you are told to follow a sentry bot to a maintenance tunnel. I do so. Then I find a cupboard with a keypad and how do I get the code to open it?

Why, I just needed to get the audio file from other character's PDA, and listen to it for the code...

err...that'll be a bit tricky if I can't listen to the audio file! A real pity as it was looking like a good game.

Still, if Half Life 2 DO get subtitles, then it will more than make up for lack of Doom 3
Click to expand...

That's kinda annoying and sad.
:|

And hey, welcome to the forums. :thumbs:
 
Yeah, I think developers need to add subtitles, because many people in the "game-community" is deaf, when I say many, I don't mean a huge scale, but many people are deaf, and I think this should be comon to every game. If HL2 won't have subtitles, the game would suck even more, because you don't allways get what they are saying.

gta3 and gta:vc is two good games with subs, and it couldn't be so hard to add subtitles? :S
 
JGJones said:
I'm a deaf gamer too myself and one recent game by id - Doom 3 - does not carry subtitles. I played this game for the first time recently, but after 10 minutes I had to give up on it.

Why? Too hard? Hardly, I haven't even started fighting anything. So why then?

Well in the game at the beginning, you are told to follow a sentry bot to a maintenance tunnel. I do so. Then I find a cupboard with a keypad and how do I get the code to open it?

Why, I just needed to get the audio file from other character's PDA, and listen to it for the code...

err...that'll be a bit tricky if I can't listen to the audio file! A real pity as it was looking like a good game.

Still, if Half Life 2 DO get subtitles, then it will more than make up for lack of Doom 3
Click to expand...

That really sucks. Although, if I remember right, you don't really need to get into the storage cabinets. They just hold spare ammo and health. Although it's obviously inconvenient for you, you should still be able to play through the game. You'll just miss out on like 2-4 pass codes that are in the dialogue. Also, frequently check on sites like www.gamefaqs.com for transcripts of the dialogue. Some gamers often take the time to post all the dialogue for certain games on sites around the net.
 
I sent an e-mail to Gabe about the subtitles and he forwarded it to Bill Van Buren. I asked if every thing would be subtitled from the important conversations to the NPCs chatter and he said this:
We've got subtitles for everything, the only thing we've ended up suppressing subtitles for is some unessential/atmospheric sound, like certain lines of enemy chatter - lines that would generally be audible but not intelligible - so that the screen doesn't get too cluttered and distracting in action situations.
Click to expand...
I'm going to put this in the valve info thread too.
 
ACLeroK212 said:
That really sucks. Although, if I remember right, you don't really need to get into the storage cabinets. They just hold spare ammo and health. Although it's obviously inconvenient for you, you should still be able to play through the game. You'll just miss out on like 2-4 pass codes that are in the dialogue. Also, frequently check on sites like www.gamefaqs.com for transcripts of the dialogue. Some gamers often take the time to post all the dialogue for certain games on sites around the net.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for that URL, I shall check it out. Still it's very inconvenient...imagine later on in the game, I come across the same thing, and I'm faced with the same cupboard where I need that health...I'm down to perhaps 5% and there's a swarm behind me, but I just need that 50% health boost medikit in the cupboard...

Still I'll continue with the game once in a while, but things like this does kinda spoil it for me. Such is life.
 
Wow, I feel terrible for the both of you. We all know about everyday hardships that come with being deaf, but....I guess I never thought of the hearing-impaired as gamers.

Well, at least HL2 will have subtitles. This makes me very happy for you! :E

Oh, and about being able to read the G-Man's lips. Waaaaaaayyyyy cool!
 
JGJones said:
I'm a deaf gamer too myself and one recent game by id - Doom 3 - does not carry subtitles. I played this game for the first time recently, but after 10 minutes I had to give up on it.

Why? Too hard? Hardly, I haven't even started fighting anything. So why then?

Well in the game at the beginning, you are told to follow a sentry bot to a maintenance tunnel. I do so. Then I find a cupboard with a keypad and how do I get the code to open it?

Why, I just needed to get the audio file from other character's PDA, and listen to it for the code...

err...that'll be a bit tricky if I can't listen to the audio file! A real pity as it was looking like a good game.

Still, if Half Life 2 DO get subtitles, then it will more than make up for lack of Doom 3
Click to expand...

Actually that particular code is in one of the emails that you find on the PDA which is next to the storage locker. But later on in the medical lab there is a locker which has a code on an audio file :(
 
Wow, I'm amazed that it's possible to lip-read the lip-sync - good job valve! It's just another point that shows how much time, effort and quality they are putting into this game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

bbson john
Hi everyone. I am new to this forum!
Replies
11
Views
6K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
Half-Life's revisited locations
Replies
0
Views
7K
Barnz
B
B
Barking Dog Studios' work for Valve
Replies
0
Views
12K
Barnz
B
MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
Community Interviews: Final Exchange development team
Replies
0
Views
5K
Barnz
B
Back
Top